Setting a Christmas Budget & Sticking to It!
Be honest with yourself. How much can you actually afford to spend on Christmas gifts? There are great gifts to give in every price range. Seriously! You don’t have to go deep into debt to afford Christmas. Sit down and figure out out what you can actually afford. There is no shame in budgeting for Christmas, and having a budget, large or small, will help reduce the stress of Christmas and keep your spending under control.
So choose a realistic number, and use The Nice List Christmas budget planner tools to help you stick to that budget!
What is The Nice List?
It is a Christmas gift planner that helps you give thoughtful gifts and manage the Christmas season so you save money and have more joy! The Nice List is available in three formats: Digital, Printable PDF, and Paper!
Once you have chosen your overall number, get started with the budgeting tools in The Nice List. I have used $700 — the average amount spent by an American family on gifts in the Christmas season. You may spend more. You may spend less. If you have no idea what you normally spend, go back and look at your bank statements from last year to get an idea.
Now, write that number down at the top of the worksheet on page 76, and let’s begin…
Category percentages keep you prioritize how much to spend on each list of people.
Step 1: Set Category Percentages
First, decide what percentage of your budget should go to each category.
Here’s how I usually make it work:
Family: 60% (.60)
Friends: 25% (.25)
Work/School: 15% (.15)
Your percentages may look completely different depending on the size of your lists and the kinds of relationships you have! No worries. This is just an easy way to allocate your resources.
Determine how many people are in each category.
Step 2: Add Them Up
Next count up the total number of gifts in each of the three categories: Family (p. 82), Friends (p. 84), School/Work (p 86). Put those numbers into the worksheet.
If you haven’t already filled out your giving categories, start with the instructions for How to Use The Nice List. Then come back here when you get to step 3!
Simple multiplication gives you a total budget for each category.
Step 3: Do a little Math
Determine your category budget by multiplying your percentage number (as a decimal) by the total budget.
For example, 60% of $700 looks like this:
.60 x 700 = 420
That’s the total budget for Family gifts on the sample worksheet above.
Write your numbers into the worksheet.
A simple division problem gives you a per-gift budget for each category.
Step 4: And A Little More Math
Next divide your category budget by the number of gifts in that category to get your per gift budget.
For example, the Family gifts budget above looks like this:
$420 ➗13 = $32.30
That’s budget per gift for the Family category on the sample worksheet above.
Repeat these steps for each giving category.
Write the per-gift budgets at the top of each page.
Step 5: Write it down!
Then write those numbers in the blanks at the top of each giving list. That will help to keep you honest as you are shopping!
Check out The Nice List Thoughtful Giving Guide for gift ideas for every budget.
Step 6: Shop!
Now you are ready to start shopping! Check out The Nice List Thoughtful Giving Guide for budget-friendly, unique gifts for everyone on your list!
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The Nice List
This listing is for The Nice List Christmas Workbook + The Nice List All Year.
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Free Gift with Purchase: The Nice List books are designed so that they can be used in a Traveler’s Notebook -- a simple way to keep them together. For a Limited Time we will include a FREE handmade, upcycled traveler’s notebook with each purchase of The Nice List Bundle (while supplies last).
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Christmas is a busy time, particularly for parents. With school performances, parties, shopping, baking, and decorating on top of the normal busyness of life, I know many people find the Christmas season to be… overwhelming.
But it doesn’t have to be.
Over the years I have developed a system that helps me stay on budget, on time, and sane! And now with The Nice List, I am sharing that system with you so you can have a more organized and more beautiful Christmas season.
The Nice List Bundle includes two separate notebooks:
The Nice List All Year: a gift-giving tracker to last for years to come
The Nice List Christmas Workbook: a planner for the entire Christmas season to keep you organized and help bring a little sanity to your holiday season
Both are available individually or together as a bundle.
The Nice List Christmas Workbook includes:
How to Use The Nice List
How to Use The Christmas Workbook
November Calendars: weekly and monthly (undated)
December Calendars: weekly and monthly (undated)
Weekly To Do Lists for November and December (undated)
What Sparks Joy for You? Setting priorities for the holiday season
Budgeting worksheets: to establish a budget for your Christmas season — and for each gift, too
Coupons & Codes: tracker for holiday sales and discount codes
Giving Lists: to help you prioritize where you spend you money and on whom
Thoughts on Thoughtful Giving: ideas for gift giving and reducing the stress of the holidays
Thank You Note Tracker
Holiday Card Tracker
Menu Planners
Baking Planners
Shopping Lists
Blank pages for notes and planning
With a little planning and some careful thought before a gift is ever purchased, The Nice List can help you keep Christmas from spinning out of control and help you find the perspective you need. The Nice List helps you set deadlines to avoid high shipping charges and has a tool for tracking all of those promo codes and sale codes that start to flood your email inbox, too.
The Nice List All Year gives you a place to track all of the gifts you give the loved ones in your life -- not just at Christmas time. It is designed to be used for multiple years and can be purchased separately if you have more than 15 people in your life to track.
The Nice List All Year includes:
How to use The Nice List
How to use The Nice List All Year
Giving Records for 15 people covering multiple years
The Nice List All Year is also designed to be used by anyone -- not just people who celebrate Christmas. From Hanukkah to Lunar New year, Kwanzaa to Eid, and birthdays, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day and more -- record every gift you give and make notes for coming occasions, too.
Plus, when you use The Nice List All Year year after year, you develop a record of your gift-giving, so you never give the same gift twice!
Not only is The Nice List a beautiful planner, but it also comes with online tools including an extensive giving guide with gift suggestions in every budget for every person on your list — parents, inlaws, kids, friends, teachers. We have suggestions for them all and exclusive discount codes as well.
I love the Christmas season so much I have written what my husband described as my “love letter to Christmas” — The Nice List!
Order your copy of The Nice List today, and give yourself the gift of a very organized and holiday season!
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